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Forum:Canon Policy Update
Hello everyone, Brodie-001 here. With a new year comes new change for Halo Fanon. Having discussed this at length with my fellow Administrators recently, I have decided that it is high time to update our Canon Policy. Why? Well, the last proper amendments were made in 2010 shortly after the release of Halo: Reach. Back then there was still a lot of speculation and dislike of 343 Industries taking over the Haloverse, and for the past five years we have considered their work to be of lesser canon work than Bungie's main Halo Trilogy and the novels written around it. Since then we've had several new Halo games, novels and general content put out by 343i, and it only seems right that our wiki moves with the times. As such, our updated Canon Policy will require that all new fanon work follow the official Halo canon. This largely has to do with post-Human-Covenant War material such as the UNSC Infinity, the events of Halo 4 and the introduction of both the SPARTAN-IV Program and the Spartan Branch. I'm well aware that a number of users are not fond of some of these new changes, but on the Halo Fanon Wiki it is our goal to produce high-quality content that remains canon-friendly within the Halo Universe, and after years of allowing work to ignore 343i's additions to the Haloverse the time has come to amend that. This post is largely just to notify our community of this major update. After some discussion, we have decided to give some a chance for exemption from these changes. This is not a way of favouring some users over others, and is simply a way of allowing some of our older EU's to exist without doing away with years of hard work. As such, all universes made BEFORE January 30th, 2015 do not have to abide by these changes. Any articles or Expanded Universe projects made after this date that are not part of these older universes must follow our revised Canon policy. Please note that this new policy is subject to change as it is discussed by the community; what you see above is most likely not the final version. Comments If you have any queries about this update in policy, feel free to make them here. Amendment Suggestion: As discussed with Brodie, a possible exception could be created to allow for Expanded Universes to deviate from the established canon post-Halo 3, thereby allowing users to choose what canon aspects of the 343i era they wish to incorporate. Secondly, all articles created not within an established or personal EU, must adhere to both Bungie and 343i canon. Joshua (Talk) 01:26, January 18, 2015 (UTC) What if we create articles that contradict the new canon. Well, we cant really predict what is going to happen anyway right? So lets say we create a blue weapon and canon states that the weapon is red, so does that mean we have to change our blue weapon and all its info we created to fit the canon of the red weapon, even though, we had no idea it was going to be red in the first place? This concept has happened to me several times.--Andromeda Vadum (talk) 11:30, January 18, 2015 (UTC) My main issue LOMI with the rules highlighted above is that it does not effect the older users with universes in anyway (myself included), I do not think that is a fair suggestion at all. My way, while not perfect, is not what is currently used, but an adaptation of the canon rules which are not broken, they just need a tweaking. It accepts everything already set above by Brodie, only it allows an exemption for Expanded Universes, with an option to adopt what canon they like. Joshua (Talk) 17:04, January 18, 2015 (UTC) That still is exempting older users from rules. After discussions with Actene, I think EU should be exempt if we have a strict criterion to define what constitutes an Expanded Universe, secondly, we could have a place where people have to have their EUs approved. This eliminates the 'older user exemption' feeling this canon policy has. More than that, how many new EUs do we have being created? Very few. This way we allow for the older EUs to exist within canon. Frankly, the old arguments for such strict adherence to canon are completely obsolete. We have far more material to choose from, a change of developer and a culture that was created in the time gap between H3 and H4. Strict adherence to canon is not the way to go, we have the opportunity to move away from that (some what, not a dismantling of canon). Joshua (Talk) 19:28, January 18, 2015 (UTC) That wasn't my intention when I mentioned that evaluating EUs, but it works. It's more putting it in to allow for the existence of EUs that disregard post-Bungie canon. In theory it would allow new EUs to disregard post-H3 but because new universes are so rarely created and codified in the sense of my Res Publica or Brodie's Sigmaverse, or Matt's Swarmverse, that it's a policy that would rarely need enforcing. As well as that, I am definitely for making that all non-EU articles must adhere to all canon. We have to give the opportunity to new users to be on the same level as older users, even if it means creating a policy amendment that is rarely enforced. I'm more than willing to work on the 'what classifies an EU' with anyone who wishes to. Joshua (Talk) 22:15, January 18, 2015 (UTC) I grant I haven't been very active on the site as of late, and with no truly accurate way of gauging how busy I am regularly or how busy I will be in the near or far future, I still don't quite have much of an idea as to when I'll be able to continue editing and adding as much content as I'd like to. To add my input, however, for what it's worth: Way back when I was still in office and the Administrative Staff had members who have since moved on to other things, 343i was starting to introduce its new wave of canon in the wake of Bungie's departure, with no small amount of controversy among the fanbase. Though I cannot speak for the entirety of the Halo following considering that I am simply a man and not a god, I can say that the divisiveness of this new content did affect our userbase, and we were left wondering what to do considering there were a considerable number of users or potential users that ran the gamut from not taking kindly to 343i's retcons and new additions, to those who refused to accept it entirely. As such, we made the decision with no small amount of discussion and consideration to allow users to either allow 343i canon into their EUs, or exclude it entirely. This decision, in large part, took two primary things into consideration: that many users on the site had already written post-war content that conflicted with new additions, and that to change it all in the interest of conformity would not only be impractical, it would also run the risk of ruining or severely disrupting existing storylines or settings. Second, that the fanbase remained quite divided on the issue of 343i's canon not only among our editors but among the many Halo fans that constituted potential members as well. This, I feel, is important. It is true that allowing users to keep their existing EUs intact would resolve the first issue, but in the interest of fairness the second necessitates that we also give this choice to prospective members, lest they be turned away by the fact that they would have to conform with canon that they do not feel is in keeping with the spirit of the original setting. I know that I feel that 343i is taking Halo in the wrong direction, I know that many users on the site feel this way, and I know that many fans feel this way as well: such an imposition would only serve to turn away new members, when many prospective editors are already turned away by the current system of adherence to canon and reasonable realism that we proudly maintain to distinguish ourselves from other websites. To put it briefly and in summary, to allow established users to ignore 343i canon, which I think we all agree is quite necessary, yet require that all new users adhere to 343i canon is simply not fair to the many potential users that feel 343i's Halo is not compatible with Bungie's, effectively denying them a good and friendly community in which to shape and grow their works.